Chapter 196 No grass grows
The stakes of the Jianing Military Office cannot be gone anymore. It is estimated that martial law in the whole city will be indispensable after dawn. It is difficult to get away with two arrow wounds on his body. Once he enters the city, he is just trying to implicate others. Flying on the horse, endures arrow wounds and gallops on the grassland. It is difficult to escape the pursuit of the native Dangxiang cavalry on the grassland. He is now taking advantage of the dawn to quickly head towards Hengshan in the southeast. Only by taking advantage of the ups and downs of the mountains can he return to the Song Dynasty smoothly. As for Hongzhou, Bingfeng probably has become a large military camp. If he goes to Hongzhou at this time, he will definitely be alive with the arrow wounds on his body.
Bingfeng had a compass made by Xu according to Wang Jinghui's drawings. It was not enough to just not go in the wrong direction, because he knew that the southeast direction was grassland before Hengshan. In that era, the grassland and the desert were equated. The only difference was the difference between grass and sand. Faced with dangers such as water sources, wolves, etc., even the Dangxiang people from nomadic people were unwilling to get involved too deeply.
On the road, I ran and ran for life, and robbed several grassland tents while hanging food and water on the other two horses, so naturally some nomadic clothing was indispensable. The temperature difference between day and night on the grassland was extremely large, and his ragged clothes were not enough to support him to walk out of the grassland alive.
Just as Bingfeng was robbing his life and fleeing, the fire in the warehouse of the Jianing Military Office became more and more prosperous. Fortunately, after the fire was discovered, the Jianing Military Office immediately sent many troops to put out the fire. Just as the fire in the northern area began to be controlled, the large grain piles in the southern area began to burn violently again - the delayed ignition device that Bingfeng had placed there before finally ignited these grain piles!
Originally, there were many grain stacks in the southern area. Unfortunately, there were too few delayed ignition devices on Bingban's body. Only about twenty grain stacks were installed and used up, and not even a quarter of the grain stacks were reached. Fortunately, the distance between the grain stacks was relatively short. By the time the Xixia people arrived here from the warehouse in the northern area, the southern area had become a sea of fire.
Liang Yimeng, the prime minister of the Western Xia Kingdom, heard an unknown fire in the warehouse. Although the fever had already made him unable to find the southeast, west and north, he was still very clear in his heart what this warehouse meant for the southeast defense line of Xixia. The most deadly thing was where the troops he sent to Hongzhou would find so much food in the future!
After hearing the news that someone had deliberately set fire. Now that he had fled, Liang Yi buried his gloomy face immediately issued an order to his leader of the guards - to send a search team to catch the fireman!
The leader of the personal guard immediately ordered 500 soldiers of the personal guards and 500 soldiers of the Jianing Military Office and divided them into three brigades to pursue the arsonists who might have fled. The entire Jianing Military Office entered a state of martial law, and pedestrians were strictly prohibited from entering and leaving each household. Each household was searched carefully to prevent any accomplices from lurking here. However, at this time, Bingfeng had already fled the Jianing Military Office and was almost 200 miles away.
Manager Lu, a local land in the Jianing Military Office, has had a very difficult life these days. On the one hand, the mysterious boy poisoned the chili oil. The target of the poisoning was Liang Yi, the prime minister of the Xixia Kingdom. In the past few days, the prefect of the Jianing Military Office was crazy and tied all the doctors in the city who were good at medical skills to the prefect. It is said that he was treating a big man. Manager Lu was naturally very sensitive to the word "patient". Through relationships, he knew that the doctor had devoted all his strength. The big man had a high fever these days. He knew in his heart that the mysterious boy succeeded! Then the night that the young man left. A fire suddenly broke out in the warehouse outside the city. Most of the lists listed by the young man were incense, oil cloth and other fire-induced objects. He even thought with his toes and knew that the fire in the warehouse outside the city was mostly the masterpiece of the young man.
"What kind of people are there around the prince-consort!" After dealing with the inspection of the Xixia soldiers, Manager Lu returned to the inner room and thought distressedly that the prince-consort had talked to them, the people who were going to Xixia to do business. The content was not how to do business, but how to collect all local information to the maximum extent - the terrain, the number of troops stationed, the prosperity of the street market, the names, life stories of local officials, etc., even the rumors of hatred among the Xixia nobles, the local Han people's views on the Song Dynasty, such news - is this doing business? Don't you understand it is a detailed work?!
Although they knew that coming to Xixia was a relatively dangerous thing. However, they all grew up in Xu's family, apprentices, and gradually promoted to shopkeepers or managers of branches. The most important thing is that the treatment given to them by the son-in-law made them extremely moved, especially to take care of their descendants. This is something they could not refuse, so none of them left the ranks. In addition to the fair and reasonable business between the son-in-law, they left a good impression on them for a long time. In the industry under the name of Xu and the son-in-law, all kinds of anecdotes of the son-in-law were widely circulated, and the ten-mile farewell in Chuzhou made them sigh.
Manager Lu shook his head vigorously and cleared out some messy ideas. In the past few days, he did nothing according to the boy's request. He usually went to the streets in the city to explore the news and stood in the lobby of the shop to receive customers coming and going. When the soldiers of Xixia came to inspect, they knew that the shop had a very background and were mostly formal during the inspection. They were not as rough as other shops, smashed and robbed. After the inspection, they were like a desert storm.
Since Manager Lu knew that the Xixia soldiers were going to inspect the merchants in the city, he always kept packed silver in his sleeves. Although he did not need to be afraid of these Xixia soldiers who were inspected by the backstage of the business, he still had to spend money on the principle of kindness. After dealing with the inspection, Manager Lu was still standing in the front hall, but he was still thinking about the mysterious young man in his heart. He didn't know if he could return to the Song Dynasty alive...
When the Jianing Army was in full swing, Yang Ding, the envoy from the Song Dynasty, finally arrived at the outpost of the Western Xia Dynasty, Hongzhou as promised. At this time, Liang Gewei's army had been stationed in Hongzhou for two days, and after a brief correction, the morale of the entire army was very high, especially the main force of the "Captaining Army" was sharpening their swords. They already knew that coming here was to go to war with the Song Dynasty, and the main task of the Captaining Army was to capture prisoners in addition to fighting - whether it was surrendered soldiers of the Song Dynasty or the common people of the Song Dynasty, as long as every city was captured, these bloodthirsty human-shaped killing machines would tie everyone they saw with ropes everywhere, whether they were Han or Fan tribes, it would be better if they were women and children - this would become their military spoils - they could get extremely high prices in the post-war slave auction market!
The Capture Army was also hit hard in the last Dashun City Battle, but it did not hurt its vitality. Because at that time the main force of the Capture Army was still guarding Xingqing Prefecture. However, after his soldiers were captured by the Song Dynasty, they were once secretly told the emperor Zhao Xu that the then emperor Zhao Xu to behead all the captives of the Capture Army. However, after being rejected, the Capture Army also independently formed a battalion through his "special" friendship with an official from the Privy Council, and specialized in the most dangerous work on the road section from Luoyang to Yan'an Prefecture.
The treatment of food and work was extremely harsh. When the imperial court sold these prisoners to the prince-consort publicly, all the captives of this battalion had died. The rest were tortured and unhealthy. The top leaders of the Song Dynasty ruled all heard of this. Although they were unbearable, the ministers in the informed ministers did not have to make things difficult for these prisoners and prince-consorts. Even the chief censor Sima Guang, the then chief censor, closed his mouth on the matter, and the censors under his command remained silent for the first time and did not use this matter to impeach the prince-consorts.
The news that Yang Ding was named the Great Song Quanzhi Security Army could not be hidden from the Western Xia. Before coming here, Liang Gewei had already known the general plan for the attack on the Great Song Dynasty. He knew that as long as he saw Yang Ding tonight, he would kill him without saying a word and then lead his army to attack the Security Army. However, Liang Gewei did not know that Liang Yi, the Prime Minister, was seriously ill, and the warehouse of the Jianing Military Office was originally provided with grain and grass logistics, and five or six out of ten were burned away by a fire. The unfortunate thing was that this warehouse was not only his family. The military centers such as Longzhou, Xiazhou, and Zuoxiang Shenyong Army Office in the east also had to rely on this warehouse to provide grain and other supplies. It can be said that once this war starts, his food supply can jammed the neck of his army.
The news that the Jianing Army Corps warehouse was burned was not sent out in time because Liang Yi was seriously ill. The aides who came with Liang Yi believed that even if they did not have sufficient supplies, it was not difficult to obtain supplies from the territory of the Song Dynasty with the strength of Liang Gewei's army. The most important thing is that none of these aides were highly valued by Liang Yi. Liang Yi was the leader who made the decision and fell ill. These aides were just a group of scattered sheep, and no one could make a decision. In the end, the national blind guard decided to pass the news to Liang Gewei as soon as possible, so that Liang Gewei could make the decision.
However, at this time, the people from the local area reported the news were still running wildly on the way to Hongzhou!
Li Chonggui and Han Daoshan welcomed Yang Ding at the Hongzhou Gate. According to the original plan, the two sides would hold talks in the evening. After nightfall, Liang Gewei stood in front of the lobby of the Hongzhou Prefecture Prefecture Prefecture, in front of the hall in armor. Li Han and the other two were on both sides. The entire prefecture Prefecture had ambushed the swordsman and axe driver, waiting for Yang Ding to come.
Repaid from his personal soldiers, Song envoy Yang Ding had already requested a banquet in front of the prefect's office. Liang Gewei waved his hand and said, "Call the barbarians of the Song Dynasty to come in and see me!"
After a while, Yang Ding followed a Western Xia soldier to the main hall, and there were two great Song soldiers responsible for protecting Yang Ding. As soon as he saw Han Daoshan and Li Chonggui, Yang Ding wanted to walk forward and say hello, but Liang Gewei's words made him feel a little panicked: "The person who came was an envoy of the Song Dynasty, Yang Ding of the Quanzhi Security Army?!"
"It's Yang Ding! May I ask..." Yang Ding answered.
"If you are Yang Ding, you will be! Men, cut this Song Dynasty barbarian for me!" Liang Gewei waved his hand and interrupted Yang Ding impatiently. Poor Yang Ding didn't know that he had been appointed by the scapegoat of Song and Xia, and was rushing up and chopped into meat mud by the ambushed swords and axes!
Han Daoshan and Li Chonggui were originally civil officials, but seeing Liang Gewei was so fierce that he even saved the scene and directly chopped up Yang Ding. Although this was a plan that had been agreed upon, when facing the bloody scene in person, he couldn't help but feel nauseous and looked at each other. Seeing the other's eyes were full of confusion.
Just as these two people were still shocked and died tragically with Yang Dingdi, Liang Gewei interrupted their respective thoughts with a "hum". It turned out that Liang Gewei saw the appearance of these two civil officials, which really damaged the face of Dangxiang people. Fortunately, there were no Song people around, otherwise even the two of them would have been cut down.
Liang Gewei turned around and walked into the main hall with great strides. Both sides were filled with the main generals of the Xixia combat troops. He walked up to the front and shouted: "All soldiers, break through the security army of the barbarians of the Song Dynasty, and the men there are slaves. Women are you, and all the wealth is our party's Xiang men's land! Kill!"
The generals in the front hall stood up and saluted Liang Gewei and said, "Kill!" Then they hurried out from the prefectural office to take their own actions according to the plan that had been agreed upon. The horses neighed in the military camps around Hongzhou, and the loud shouts of the Dangxiang soldiers mixed together. The torches in the soldiers turned Hongzhou City into daylight!
Just as Liang Gewei issued an order to his generals and was about to go to his camp, an urgent report was sent to the lobby. Liang Gewei opened it and saw that the flesh on his face trembled, making Han Daoshan and Li Chonggui next to him a little strange. Just now, this fierce man didn't even blink his eyes when he was killing people. What could change his face?
Liang Gewei handed the urgent report to the two people who were curious. When they saw it, their faces changed. The Jianing Military Office's warehouse was burned, and there were heavy losses of military supplies such as grain. The general should be careful in fighting. More importantly, the Prime Minister Liang Yi buried the general because of his hard work on the journey and was unable to afford to be seriously ill. He is now treating the Jianing Military Office with all his efforts. However, the effect is not good!
Liang Gewei's face had recovered from calm. He didn't care that the warehouse of the Jianing Military Office was burned. Although the food in Hongzhou could not last for this battle, as long as he seized the security army in the Song Dynasty in a short period of time, he could obtain supplies. If it was still not enough to support the use of the army, he would simply use the security as the basis to rob the surrounding towns around the Song Dynasty, and would never starve his army. The only thing he cared about was Liang Yi's physical condition!
Liang Yi was buried as the prime minister of the Western Xia Kingdom and was the spokesperson of the Liang family in the court. Although the Queen Mother Liang was in power, if Liang Yi was not buried in the court, the Liang family would be in a crisis again, which was even more sinister than the battle to seize power after the Xia Zhuliangzuo died in battle three years ago!
Although Liang Gewei is a martial artist, he also knows that he is a grasshopper tied to a rope with Liang Yi. If Liang Yi suddenly dies at this time, he will also be in great trouble. When he saw this notice just now, his face turned over again was precisely because of this.
Han Daoshan and Li Chonggui were complaining in their hearts at this time, how could there be no food and supplies in war? The letter only said that the warehouse was seriously damaged, but when you think about the importance of this warehouse, you will know that not only some important military cities in the east will be in trouble, but even the combat plan of this raid on the security army will be cast an ominous shadow because the warehouse was burned!
"Sir, you can't be without food and grass when fighting. Shouldn't you fight against the Song Dynasty first..." Han Daoshan asked cautiously, for fear of angering this evil god and even suffering himself.
Liang Gewei waved his arm and turned to look at him coldly, making Han Daoshan sweat all over his body. He pointed to Yang Ding's body in front of the hall and said, "We have all the envoys of the Song Dynasty. Do you think the Song Dynasty can be willing to do it?! A hundred thousand troops are stationed here and have to eat every day. If you withdraw, can you stop the Song army's revenge?! It would be better to take down the security army in one go. It is more cost-effective to obtain food supplies there! Moreover, Yang Ding is not only an envoy of the Song Dynasty, but also a Quanzhi Security Army. The leader of the security army was slaughtered by us at this time. The barbarians of the Song Dynasty have always been weak. It is just right to use this person's head to call the Song Dynasty's city gate. I'm afraid that this general can sweep the security army without any effort. What are the food and grass at that time?!"
Liang Gewei was able to reach his current position, not only because he was powerful, but also because he followed Emperor Liangzuo to fight against the Song Dynasty and the surrounding nomadic peoples many times and made great achievements. Although he did not have much ink in his stomach and did not know any major truth, his years of experience in fighting told him that the Dangxiang army did not have to care about how much food and grass there were when fighting. As long as he could quickly occupy the target, he could obtain enough supplies, especially the city of the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty army defended heavily. In order to bear the responsibilities, there must be a large number of food and other combat materials stored in the city. Experience in fighting with the Song army told him that as long as he passed the city wall, the spoils inside were enough to support him in the next battle. If he continued like a snowball, he could only fight harder and stronger as long as he had sufficient troops.
If Wang Jinghui knew what Liang Gewei thought here, he would definitely kill this Xixia general who looked like a brown bear at all costs - this guy's combat method was exactly the same as that of the Mongols! In fact, the Mongols' combat method was not their original creation. Most of the nomadic people on the grassland were like this. It depends on who develops faster first. Such a big fish eats small fish. As long as there is no internal problem, a powerful force can be roughly formed in a few decades.
Chapter completed!